Styak awoke back where he'd been, in Parry's memory vault, though not in some deep well but atop the vast, almost featureless plane extending in every direction towards walls faint in the distance, rising forever to an infinite dark gray sky. There were, however, differences.

The stuff of memories was compartmentalized, as if the landscape composed of bricks. Fine lines ran the grid, otherwise featureless all the way, as far as kitten eyes could see.

Parry's voice came from everywhere at once.

"It's nice to not have you rooting through my memories. I appreciate you keeping your word."

The demon looked around and then up, which felt appropriate.

"It's pleasant not to have this form imposed on me."

"And yet you stay a calico cat. Why? I've seen thousands of demons, I've been a demon. I won't be startled."

Styak's answer was to lick his own leg quietly.

"Suit yourself," the voice chuckled. "It took almost all your reserves, but I made the jump to the Fifth Step soon as we completed our ritual Wednesday."

The cat looked up again. "What day is it?"

"Saturday. Father is none the wiser, though I'm forced to restrict my spell casting and my shaping. It's not difficult to introduce a few errors here and there."

Paying attention to something else, sniffing at the air, Styak noted, "You've unlocked many more spells."

"Yes."

"I recommend the [[Friends with Stone]] category. Stone is of your world and mine, stone separated and combines them. I can do much with stone."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. First, check your own power."

The demon felt drained still from all it had given to the ritual, but through that fatigue Styak felt the boundaries of his magic...and they were larger.

"You're sharing?" It was a question, but the idea itself was baffling. "I saw you draw that line on your soul, I thought it was...peculiar."

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"Don't think it's because you're so cute and fuzzy. I need something from you, and you need higher levels to fetch it for me. I'm glad the sharing worked. I've never actually incorporated a familiar into my powers."

"Familiar? 'Familiar'!?'" The demon was back to that outraged screeching.

"I am no one's familiar! I am Styak, I will tear your soul into wires to string my harp and play dirges with your screams!"

"Oh here we go again."

"How DARE you--"

"Look, we're past that. Calm down and you'll see being a familiar is by far the best kind of bond we can share. Look, it opened a second class to me, years earlier than should be possible--level four, otherworldly, even."

The demon indulged in a few more colorful moments of rage, then simmered into a muttering hiss. "You're going to pay me back someday for these indignities, human."

"How about 'Parry'? You Styak, me Parry."

"Why are you talking like that?"

"Anyway, you're sharing whatever spells or powers I have in addition to your own, it's hardly a bad deal. Go ahead and find yourself an otherworldly familiar if you want."

That brought the demon up short. "A familiar with a familiar?"

"All the way down. Speaking of, that's why I don't want more shaper categories for my spell slots. I'm thinking bigger."

The demon sat, looking very tiny indeed against that enormous backdrop. "Go on...?"

"Father's a shaper, a good one, even very good. But he won't let me have spells of the Fifth Step as he thinks I'm still at the Second, and I'm not about to tell him otherwise."

Styak looked down.

"Yes," Parry smiled, despite only being a voice. "Below your paws are memories from thousands upon thousands of lifetimes. Many I remember myself. Many I've forgotten, but are doubtless still there. Many more are blocked or sealed or jumbled from all the reincarnations--"

"But I can find them."

"More than that. You know the range of your own powers and affinities better than me, and you'll know which spells or whole spell categories give us the most."

"You're sending me to dig through your memories? The very thing you didn't want me to do?" Styak felt waves of distrust and hope, uncertainty and opportunity.

"I can't remember much about my world, it's been, subjectively to me, thousands of years. But I remember coming home from the store and sitting down in front of the TV with a big tub of cookie dough ice cream."

"TV?"

"Not important. The point is digging through all the ice cream with your spoon to find the delicious chunks. Categories and spells we can use now are our prize. I've led a lot of lives, most of what you find will be far too powerful for now, even more will be magic from other classes or races I can't use...yet."

There was no time in this space, but it felt like the moment was stretching endlessly.

"Memories are my power. Don't eat them, dammit! But we can find them. Let's do some digging."